Díaz-Canel met last Saturday with veterans who came aboard the Granma yacht (1956), were guerrilla fighters in the Sierra Maestra Mountains (1956-59), clandestine fighters in cities (1950s), members of the 26th of July Movement (from 1953), internationalist fighters abroad (from 1959) and current revolutionary activists.
“Welcome to your Palace, to the Palace of the Revolution, which is the trench and home of those of us who work every day to safeguard the undefeated heritage you and your fellow fighters inherited to us,” the President told veterans at the Portocarrero Hall of the Government headquarters.
The Cuban president opened their dialogue with such a greeting, on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution (ACRC), which falls on December 7.
Also attending was the Communist Party´s Secretary of Organization, Roberto Morales, ministers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), Army Corps General Álvaro López, and of the Interior (MININT), Division General Lázaro Álvarez, and other officials.
The Cuban president thanked the veterans and relatives of those who had fallen in various armed conflicts, for their teachings and their loyalty to the nation and its historic leadership, headed by Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro.
Your strength “has not renounced audacity, or changing everything that needs to be changed,” which makes them “admirable combatants of all times,” said the President of the Republic.
“Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, Army General Raúl Castro, and you (members of the ACRC) showed us that, under difficult circumstances, unshakeable firmness is required to attain victory,” he added, stressing that their generation “did not faint when facing difficulties and became a protagonist of the revolutionary struggle since its youth, and today it continues to fight, providing the most exact definition of what it means to resist and win.”
The president also paid tribute “to those who treasure so much experience and history, and to the drive of those who, being a little younger, continue today on the path of previous generations and work together giving their contributions to continue building the history of our country,” he said.
Over twenty veterans also spoke, ratifying their support for the revolutionary process, their loyalty to the legacy of Fidel Castro and the teachings of Raúl Castro and the certainty that the Revolution will move forward despite the hostility of the United States imperialism.
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